When life gives you beer …

A handful of microbreweries have teamed with an alternative energy company to convert waste yeast into ethanol. San Diego microbrewery Karl Strauss joins the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Gordon Biersch in partnering with GreenHouse energy in using the E-Fuel MicroFueler to make ethanol. (E-Fuel’s president and CEO, Thomas Quinn, is patent holder of the Nintendo Wii.) GreenHouse collects the spent beer yeast from the breweries and takes them to participating homes and businesses that have a portable MicroFueler. The machine allows them to distill it themselves, then pump the ethanol directly into their vehicles.